Sunday, April 29, 2012

April Platform Challenge: Day 29

Tomorrow is the last day of this challenge. Yay! We're nearly to the finish line.

Almost there.

For today's task, make a task list of things you are going to do on each day of May. That's right, I want you to break down 31 days with 31 tasks for each day--similar to what we've done through April.

You see, I don't want you to quit challenging yourself once April is over. Of course, you get to decide what the tasks will be. So if you aren't into new social media sites, don't put them on your list. Instead, focus on blog posts, commenting on other sites, linking to articles, contacting experts, or whatever it is that you are going to do in May to keep momentum building toward an incredible author platform.

Somewhere near the end of May, you should have a day set aside with one task: Make a task list of things to do on each day of June. And so on and so forth. Keep it going, keep it rolling, and your efforts will continue to gain momentum and speed. I promise.

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This live webinar is set for May 24 (2012) and will be taught by one of my favorite presenters: C. Hope Clark! If you've never attended a presentation by Hope, you'll be amazed by the overwhelming wave of information with which she'll flood you. She's amazing. Plus, all registrants will receive a personalized critique on their personal projects, which is an amazing deal in and of itself.

65 comments:

I'm already done with this! After creating my editorial calendar I got a bit "overzealous" and came up with a list of posts and things to do each day from May to the beginning of June. Weekdays are taken up with the posts for days on my editorial calendar, plus the occasional questionnaire, video post, etc. Weekends are dedicated to small bits of advice, catching up on networking (commenting on blogs, updating some of my other social media pages, etc.). And I'm challenging myself quite frequently to reach out to poets I admire, submit poems, etc.

I am visiting my son, daughter-in-law, and my two grandchildren in Hawaii for 2-weeks from mid-May. I haven't seen them, except for highly pixelated Skype conversations, for 18-months. I am not bringing a laptop, couldn't care what's happening on Facebook or Twitter or Google. My entire focus will be on family, which is where it should be. I will however bring my notebook and pen, and I'll be taking notes to accompany the jillions of photos I'll take. That's my May scheduling! :D

Yay! I've been doing this all along, as things unfolded this month. (Once I fall into a task it's easy to stay there, extend it.) Plus, I am calling next month "Submission a Day in May." Wish me luck. ;)

This one hits me where it hurts: it's called organization! Some of the earlier tasks have taken care of a few days . . . writing guest posts, working through the interview (my subject isn't available until mid-May), create a writer's page on Facebook, and since this is really all about the writing, I LOVE De's suggestion: "Submission a Day in May." Great goal. So it's not done yet, but it will be by the end of the day, I hope. Thanks for this push.

@Khara--you must be a superwoman, or you live in an alternate universe where you get more hours in the day! : )

As a habitual list maker, I read this morning's challenge with a cheer. I know if I am going to keep up with this, I need to put it in writing. Like Khara, I have been adding tasks to my editorial calendar. Like Bolton, I am wrapping up a school year, so I need to schedule around those tasks.

Love this idea, and that it occured on a Sunday...time to think! One of my hopes is to create a website, and I am wondering what you all might recommend. Is Blogger, with multiple pages, what you use or is something more preferred, with an actual domain name?

Calendars/to do lists are priority interruptible: Most of things on mine can be interrupted by family needs/wants. Then there is the weather – I have a veggie garden and yard that… I am an early riser so I get some writing done nearly each day. But there is more to writing a book than just writing a book. In prior posts, I mentioned having, yea getting, to do a line-by-line for my book to be published next month. Then there was the cover artwork. Then there was the focused press release drafting. Then…Keeping up with all of the MNINB challenges and a few non family things got moved to the ‘maybe next week’ category. Did I mention the weather control over gardening? Many of the “challenges” have already been met but I just did not take time to report.I am appreciative of the challenge program because I did make several contacts and found new ideas I would not have had without the suggestions and being allowed to participate.

I made the list, and was interested to realize some things..checking in on social media... which were totally foreign have become habitual and don't need to be listed. Hope that happens with my blogs next. Speaking of which, I have a column to write! Cheers.

Yes, I, too, have already made a list of things to do each week--but that's a bit different from what NB wants. I didn't put any NEW CHALLENGES on it. Sure, writing new posts and keeping up with the social media sites I already have is a challenge already, but that's not learning something new. I don't want to try to so a new challenge every day in future - it's too time-consuming- and I do need to consolidate all the learning I've done so quickly this month by simple using what we've done - but I want to add at least a couple of NEW challenges as well to keep learning.Maybe a focus to what we've been doing - like I want to learn more about self-publishing, so maybe my next challenge is to use social media to learn about s-p, make connections with people who have s-p'd, join new chat groups that discuss s-p, and explore social media that helps promote self-published books. AS WELL AS continuing to blog and twitter about the subjects I write about.Sound okay, NB?Oh, and I have to learn to better read these weird words that prove I'm not a robot. (Maybe I am?)

Great assignment! I have gotten so much out of this challenge (mainly time management skills that were lacking before). Thank you, thank you! Looking forward to running my own personal daily challenge. ;-)

Done. I've now got a day-by-day plan for May! In evaluating what parts of the Challenge have been most useful for me, I've tried to focus on those items that have brought me into contact with other writers and their work, and on those tasks that have put my work in front of those who are most likely to want to read it. Those were my priorities in establishing my list for May, and then I've also slotted in regularly scheduled opportunities for the other tasks we did — things that don't seem as important right now, but which could become more central as I move forward.

Done! I love planning things ahead of time, especially when I have a lot to do. It sure takes a lot of work to build a platform. Thanks, Robert, for your guidance. It's going to be tough without you holding my hand in these next few days.

Gosh, I'm going to miss you. I feel like graduation is tomorrow. Do we get some kind of diploma...or better yet, a badge? :o)

Well, I already publish blog posts M-F, and I'm on Twitter and FB virtually every day. So I'm going to give myself an out on this one. Thanks to this challenge, I'm confident that every day I'll be using something that we covered (or reminding myself to), even without the benefit of a list.

I'm going to take my time today tweaking this calendar. Thanks to Beth...no really, REALLY, REALLY, thanks to Beth for creating a list of NB's April Lists on FB. This is tremendously helpful. There are easier days and harder days and repeat days. It is much easier for me to replicate a calendar that will be actionable with this template. I already have a list of things I was going to tackle when this is done. I just need to put them into bite-sized pieces and fill in the days. Thx to NB and to all who have enriched my life this month. That would be all of you. And Robert, have fun camping.

I haven't checked in but have done the tasks with the exception of the guest post request. I figured I'd write something that struck my fancy and see if I can't shop it around. Coincidentally, if anyone wants to fulfill that particular task, my site is open for submissions. :) At any rate, thanks a bunch for all the work in putting this challenge together. Despite my kicking and screaming about additional social networks, I can't decide between the RedRoom and GoodReads so will probably join both. How's that for irony?

Not done. But thank you thank you thank you. The first 10 days in May will be spent catching up on the April challenge. You've given me the courage to make some pretty big decisions in my writing career :-)

My plan for the month of May is to focus on the professional side of my platform building. I will be attending the Ontario Association of Architects annual conference in Ottawa, and hope to build some face to face time with potential people to interview.

Aside from that, and my weekly posting schedule (wednesdays for circadian design and fridays for my quirky city) and to comment and post something daily on my social networking sites, hopefully getting better at using Hootsuite.

So my month will end up with:May 1 - Write Wed post, comment on anotherMay 2 - Post to Circadian DesignMay 3 - Write Fri post, comment on anotherMay 4 - Post to My Quirky CityMay 5 - Comment on another siteMay 6 - Comment on another siteMay 7 - Comment on another site, work out posts for the week.

That's such a great idea! I love today's challenge. Now if only I didn't see it at 9:30 at night! I have a loose idea in my head of what I'll do for May, including familiarize myself with Goodreads and Linked in a little more. This has been a great month. I'm sad tomorrow is the last day!

I don't think I can count this one as "Done" but I can definitely count it as "Started." I have a list of tasks to accomplish, so I just need to take a few quiet moments and think about the most effective order in which to do them.

Instead of scheduling tasks for specific days, I made a list of extra stuff that I know will push me (like hosting a blog tour and offering a give away). These will be in addition to regular posts and sharing the writerly love on twitter and blogs.

Robert, I just want to let you know that Virginia McKenna has agreed to do an interview on my blog as I wrote about endangered species. I never thought she would say yes, so thank you so much for encouraging us to reach out!!!

I've been making notes all month on the things I want to push myself to do. And thanks to one of the comments to the challenge on organizing our work life, I've installed Evernote and started setting up The Secret Weapon system, which I am using to keep these notes now. Yesterday, Sunday, is my day for evaluations and setting of priorities. So the timing was perfect for doing this challenge. Only I never opened the blog and saw that's what I was supposed to be doing for the April Challenge. Sweet coincidence.

I've been in the process of doing this! I've made an Excel spreadsheet for my "Writing Schedule" and have tried to set realistic goals for what I can do in May. The challenge will be continuing what we've started here and forming sustainable habits. I will try to throw in at least one or two "bigger" challenges, but like many others who have commented, I could not keep up the "April Platform Challenge" pace for long. :)

31 platform tasks have been listed in a place where I can get the rewarding "click" of a check mark upon accomplishment of each task. I chose not to assign each task to a specific day, so that I have a little more freedom with what works on what day, depending on other events of the day. Since my first day after "graduation" from the April platform challenge is going to be November 21, my 31 platform tasks will, God willing, be completed on or before December 21.